In Healthy Teas, author Tammy Safi has specially created the recipes to maximize the health benefits of all tea ingredients, whether they are fruits, exotic floral blends, or any of the many types of tea leaves. &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp

Celestial Seasonings Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Herbal
Tea Review

Summary : Not a substitute for the real thing, but this tea from Celestial Seasonings does provide a no-calorie alternative to a bakery Sugar Cookie.

Review : With the onset of the holiday season, one thing is guaranteed in the world of tea - all sorts of new and interesting "holiday teas" begin to hit the store shelves.

And so it was that one night at Target I noticed a tea with an adorable box that I've managed to miss in my quest to try new and strange teas - the Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride from Celestial Seasonings.

Sugar Cookie? I adore cookies, and sugar cookies are near the top of the list, falling just behind homemade chocolate chip cookies. And so with dreams of sugar cookies dancing in my mind I tossed the tea into the shopping cart, came home and gave this intriguing tea a try.

Here is how Celestial Seasonings describes this tea: "This cheerful holiday blend will warm your heart with the inviting aroma and delightfully simple taste of freshly baked sugar cookies straight from the oven. Like all of our teas, Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride has no refined sweeteners or added sugars – giving you a guilt-free way to partake freely in the pleasures of the season."

The fragrance of the tea did provide some hope that this tea might indeed be the perfect substitute for a calorie-heavy sugar cookie. Fresh from the box, the tea did have a moderate fragrance of a sugar cookie. Thinking that I might have come across a perfect no-calorie substitute for a cookie, I boiled some water and eagerly brewed up the tea.

Once brewed, the tea is pale in color and has a weak aroma of a sugar cookie. While somewhat disappointed with the fragrance from the brewed tea, I still aproached the tasting of it with an open mind.

Unfortunately, the flavor of the tea failed to match the cute box, the nice description of the tea or the aroma. While the tea does have a bit of sugar cookie flavor, I found the flavor far too weak for my liking. The teas flavor is certainly no substitute for munching on a homemade or even store bought sugar cookie.

Still, while the teas flavor is weak, it isn't awful or horrible by any means. Perhaps the best way to describe this tea might be as a somewhat stale and improperly made sugar cookie that you bought from the bakery at your grocery store. The sugar cookie flavor is somewhat there, and it isn't bad tasting, but it is by no means satisfying or a substitute for the real thing, either.

In the end, I simply found this tea to be similar to many other holiday tea creations I've tried - a disappointment but not an epic disaster.

Recommendation : It depends. I found the flavor to be too weak and not "true enough" to a sugar cookie taste. However, those who prefer weaker flavored teas might find some redeeming qualities to the teas flavor.